3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) standards have defined to support scalable bandwidth. For example, base stations supporting a scalable bandwidth may dynamically operate with a bandwidth chosen in a scalable bandwidth range based on status of its surroundings. According to the 3GPP LTE standards, the scalable bandwidth may be applied to femtocells.
A femtocell may be a small service area that is managed and controlled by a femtocell base station. The femtocell base station is designed to connect user equipment located in a femtocell to a service provider's network. The femtocell may be established in a home or a small business office in a cellular system. The range of a femtocell base station may be about 10 to 30 meters. The femtocell base station may allow access to about 4 to 7 devices simultaneously.
Femtocell base stations may be frequently installed at a shadow area in a macrocell. The shadow area of the macrocell denotes an area where signals of the macrocell base station are generally weak, degraded or otherwise seriously deteriorated. For example, the shadow area of the macrocell may be an inside of a building or a home. Femtocell base stations may improve overall quality of a mobile communication service supported by the macrocell.
However, signals of one or more femtocell base stations and a macrocell base station operating in a given area may interfere with each other. Such interference may degrade the overall quality of a mobile communication service supported in the given area.